1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a solid rubber treaded spare tire for passenger vehicles to be supplied as original spare tire equipment for automobiles instead of the usual fifth wheel having a demountable pneumatic tire thereon normally supplied as original equipment for passenger vehicles.
More particularly, the invention relates to a simple spare tire construction composed of outer metal rim segments arranged in a ringlike fashion, and an inner metal hub member to which the ringlike arranged segments are connected. Each segment has a T-shaped cross section with tread rubber vulcanized-bonded to the outer T-head surface. A rubber block is bonded to a surface of each segment T-stem. A small thin sheet metal member is bonded to a portion of the block opposite that block portion which is bonded to the T-stem. The segment sheet metal members each are connected at circumferentially spaced intervals to an inner metal hub member.
Further, the invention relates to a spare tire construction in which the series of segments surrounding the inner hub member, with slight clearance between adjacent segments, forms a substantially continuous circumferential tire rim having a substantially continuous solid rubber tread thereon; and in which the tread rubber, and the rubber blocks connecting the segments and hub member, provide sufficient resilient or cushioning properties so that the spare tire may replace a flat vehicle tire and wheel for necessary highway travel even for considerable distances until the flat tire can be repaired.
Finally, the invention relates to a simple, inexpensive serviceable, reliable, resilient solid rubber treaded spare tire construction which may be manufactured from few components as a unitary structure and included as original spare tire equipment for an automotive passenger vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art contains examples of resilient wheels having numerous rim and hub member components bolted together wherein outer annular hub portions and inner annular rim portions are clamped together by bolts, etc., with intervening assemblies of numerous rubber pads or washers and separators, sometimes having interengaged socket and projection portions, clamped between spaced annular portions of the rim and hub members. Examples of such prior wheel constructions are shown in Pat. Nos. 1,449,188, 1,684,596 and 2,672,907. The rim members of such constructions have solid rubber tires surrounding their outer peripheries, sometimes removably mounted thereon. The resilient wheels of the types described and shown in said prior patents each have an entremely large number of parts or components bolted and clamped together rendering their constructions, assemblies and maintenance so expensive as to be impractical for occasional use as a spare tire for automotive passenger vehicles.
Another type of spring wheel is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,646,991 which also has a large number of components bolted together in assembled form and also has a solid rubber tread portion on the outer periphery of the rim member one form of which is demountable. Several forms of construction are shown. The spring connection between the complicated hub and rim member assemblies in one form is provided by a series of cylindrical rubber plug members having caps at their ends bolted to disklike portions of the rim and hub members of the wheel. In another form the spring connection between the rim and hub members of the wheel consists of a series of spring steel components the ends of which also are clamped in the caps which are bolted to the rim and hub members. Here again the spring wheel construction is so complicated and involves so many different parts assembled and clamped by bolts that the cost of manufacture, assembly, maintenance and adjustment renders the wheel construction impractical for use as a spare tire for automotive passenger vehicles.
Another form of resilient wheel construction is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,671,488 wherein a cast metal hub member and a cast metal rim member are assembled by vulcanizing an elastomer to hub and rim annular radial flanges projecting outwardly from the hub member and inwardly from the rim member in overlapped relation, and providing spaced ribs on each of the two flanges directed toward the other and extending into the rubber to increase the bonded area between the rubber and flanges. The outer cylindrical metal surface of the wheel rim contacts the supporting surface over which the wheel rolls when the device supported by the wheel is moved. Such a resilient wheel with cast metal components and an outer cast metal rim surface similarly is impractical for use as a spare tire for an automotive passenger vehicle.
There has been no simple, inexpensive, serviceable spare tire construction known in the art of which we are aware, capable of being manufactured from few thin metal components and bonded rubber to form a unitary structure that can replace expensive automotive wheels having pneumatic tires thereon duplicating the four wheels and tires which support passenger vehicles that traditionally have been part of original equipment for automotive vehicles.